Perfect Push Ups

Perfect
push ups are a great total body exercise. And the best part about it is
that it requires no equipment at all. Just you and your body.

Push
up training is a great way to improve core stability, and it is one of
my favorite core exercises for my patients. It also works the
shoulders, chest, upper back, and hips. For the time investment and not
needing equipment, a push up is one of the best exercises you can add
to your training program or sports injury rehab.

The
Perfect Push Up

The key to an effective pushup is to make
sure that you maintain good body alignment. If you can do this, you
will work more than just your arms and chest. You will gain core
stability and abdominal strength.

To perform a push up, start by placing your
hands a little wider than your shoulders, and rolling up on your toes.

Make
sure that you are in alignment from your shoulders to your heels.

You
may want to perform this in front of a mirror the first few times to
make sure that your hips are not too high, or that you are not sagging
in the middle.

Breathe out and then push yourself up
to return to the starting position.

Make sure that
you keep your alignment through the entire push up. Start off with sets
of 5-10, paying attention to your position. Gradually add more sets and
repititions as you get stronger.

As you are
performing the push ups, focus on your abs. Keep your pelvis
stabilized, and you will feel your lower abdominals really working
because you are challenging them.

Push
Up Variations

There are lots of ways to vary push ups and
make them more challenging. Once the perfect push up gets easy, it is
time to vary your workout with other types of push ups.

You can start by placing your feet on
a chair or a box, creating a declined push up. I like to use fitness
balls to do decline push ups, both myself and with my patients.

You can also do push ups on a medicine
ball. This is an advanced exercise, and takes some time to work up to.

With
the very close hand position, it will really work your abs if you keep
good alignment.

Summary

Most
people don't think of push ups as an abdominal exercise. Ask any
fitness professional and they will tell you different. The key to
perfect push ups is to make sure that you maintain good alignment. Go
slow and breathe throughout the exercise. As you get stronger, you can
add variations like the fitness ball push up or the medicine ball push
up.

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